Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor review

Our Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t monitor is a capable—if expensive—way to add screen space and touch functionality to your laptop or mobile device.

For

Attractive screen with good color, effulgence
Easy to carry and configure to your specific needs
Comes with several useful accessories

Confronting

Expensive
Requires specific USB Type-C port
Displayed some ghosting when playing fast video

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t monitor is a capable—if expensive—way to add screen space and bear on functionality to your laptop or mobile device.

Pros

+
Attractive screen with good color, brightness
+
Piece of cake to carry and configure to your specific needs
+
Comes with several useful accessories

Cons

-
Expensive
-
Requires specific USB Type-C port
-
Displayed some ghosting when playing fast video

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor: Specs

Screen Size: 14 inches
Resolution: 1,920x1,080
Refresh Charge per unit: 60Hz
Inputs: USB Type-C
Dimensions: 8.44x12.73x0.55 inches (with stand)

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor is a straightforward way to add together more than screen existent manor to your laptop, no affair where y'all get or what you demand to do. A xiv-inch, 1080p portable monitor that offers 10-bespeak bear upon, it's a good-looking, well-performing, and easy-to-send addition to your tech arsenal that lives up to Lenovo's long-standing reputation for function-forward and frill-gratis design.

At a list toll of $499, however, the M14t isn't cheap, and from its tech requirements to its handful of oddities, there are a number of other reasons it might not brand sense for your workflow. This is a solid portable monitor that'due south really piece of cake to similar but is much harder to love.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor review: Blueprint

From a distance, it wouldn't be hard to mistake the M14t for a tablet. Measuring eight.44x12.73x0.55 inches and weighing slightly more 1.five pounds, information technology'southward small, light, and easy to deport and ready up wherever you need. The last attribute comes by way of the integrated kickstand, about 3.6 inches in width and 0.3 inch in depth; it can rotate out at whatever angle upwards to 90 degrees, and folds against the dorsum of the monitor when not in use. (This means that y'all can't lay the M14t perfectly flat without propping up ane finish, but functioning isn't otherwise afflicted.)

Back view of Lenovo ThinkVision M14t — (Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The 14-inch screen is surrounded by bezels only a hair more than a quarter-inch on the sides and peak and by one measuring about 1.3 inches on the bottom (adjacent to the kickstand). Their glossy black coloring is a nice match for the matte black finish of everything else, with the merely other distinguishing ornament the gunmetal-gray Lenovo logo on the left-rear side of the screen.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t web browsing — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Hardware controls and ports on the M14t are few, but a device like this doesn't need many, and they've been tucked abroad on the kickstand, where they won't much tarnish the monitor's outward appearance. There are two charging USB Type-C ports (run across below), one on each side; brightness controls and the Card push on the left; and a Power button and a Kensington lock slot on the right.

Prototype 1 of 2

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t ports — (Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Image 2 of 2

In order to use the monitor, the device you plan on connecting information technology to must have a USB Type-C port that supports DisplayPort 1.two Alt Mode and USB Ability Delivery 2.0. Almost current Lenovo laptops have ports like this (surprise, surprise), every bit do computers from many other manufacturers (I tried it on Alienware and Asus laptops, and it worked but fine). If you don't know if your reckoner has the appropriate port, you're best off checking earlier shelling out the money for the M14t.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor review: Screen testing and performance

If you're expecting that a screen every bit svelte every bit the one on the M14t probably doesn't offering world-grade operation, y'all'd be right—but it'due south potent for what information technology is. Running our display tests, which use a Klein K10-A colorimeter along with DisplayCal and Klein'southward ChromaSurf software, showed that in its default picture mode (Ruby-red), the M14t covered 97.7% of the sRGB color gamut; it covered 98.ane% in Neutral style, 93.2% in Blueish, and its all-time 98.5% in sRGB. (It covered less of the wider DCI-P3 gamut, topping out at just under 70% in every fashion except Blue, where information technology stuck at 66%.) The colors were accurate, too, with the monitor'south Delta-Eastward (which determines the difference between the color from the source and the color displayed, with lower numbers being better) clocking in at 0.21; all of the other modes were at 0.3 or 0.31.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t streaming — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The M14t does non get specially bright, even when its brightness setting is increased the maximum. On our review unit, the brightest mode (every bit measured with the same colorimeter and Klein'southward ChromaSurf software) was again Reddish, averaging 201 nits across the whole brandish; Neutral, Bluish, and sRGB came in at 196, 188, and 170 respectively.

Even then, the screen routinely looked good displaying a multifariousness of static content at multiple viewing angles, and the brightness was never a distraction one way or another. (The platonic pic mode depends on what you lot're watching or working on, of course, but they all look pretty decent except for i: Blueish, which—get this—skews likewise bluish for my tastes.) With only a 60Hz refresh rate and a response fourth dimension of 6ms in the fastest (Extreme) of its three Over Bulldoze screen response modes, the M14t isn't platonic for playing annihilation other than basic games, and when using the Normal Over Bulldoze fashion to watch YouTube and Netflix videos, at that place was some visible ghosting in scenes of faster activity. But when used for everyday Web-browsing and productivity tasks, functioning was never an consequence. We were able to chop-chop and cleanly take notes on it and fifty-fifty draw with the bundled touch pen, which boasts 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity that will probably be most appreciated by someone with richer artistic skills than mine.

Although the all-time use of the M14t would seem to be as a second screen for extending your smaller laptop's Windows display then you can spread out across a wider area while working in multiple applications, the monitor's appropriate size and well-balanced weight made it especially pleasing to apply in portrait mode. Although this isn't then hot on a desk or other flat surface, where the stand seems a little wonky and you have to accept the USB cable bulging unattractively out of the summit, information technology'southward terrific for reading long documents or scanning infinitely scrolling websites while you're holding the monitor in your hands.

The problem with that, of course, is that the monitor notwithstanding needs to be connected to a device, and the included 40-inch USB Type-C cable may not be long enough to let you do so just anywhere. If y'all expect to desire to utilize the M14t this way frequently, investing in a longer cable may not be a bad idea. Lenovo even facilitates dissimilar cable usage models by providing a USB Type-C bending connector that lets yous connect information technology at 90 degrees.

The final accessory you get with the M14t is another skilful ane: a padded, ThinkVision-branded carrying case. The textile case, which has a Lenovo-cherry-red interior top portion, is permanently open at the top, so openly transporting the monitor in the rain is not the best idea.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t fabric case — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

At that place are also no pockets, and so you lot'll have to figure out some other fashion to cart effectually the USB cable, angle connector, and touch pen (though the final can be inserted into holes at the lesser of the case, this doesn't seem like the well-nigh secure or convenient way to do it).

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor review: Interface

The M14t's on-screen display (OSD) is as piece of cake to navigate as it is to access, with simply two screens to page through. The first offers bones controls for screen brightness and contrast; a toggle switch for activating affect support on Windows or Android and Chrome devices; and options to turn on low blue light, waken on bear upon, or auto rotation features (just the last of which is on by default).

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t settings — (Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

On the second, Avant-garde Settings, you lot can switch between the 3 Over Drive modes, the four display modes, or whatsoever of viii operational languages, or perform a factory reset.

The OSD is merely designed, with large bold colors, no transparency, and that iconic red Lenovo bluecoat, simply the controls are properly sized to be easily touch attainable, so it accomplishes what it needs to.

Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor review: Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor is aimed at a very narrow slice of the market: those who travel oftentimes and accept a laptop with the proper USB port just non a touch screen. Such people besides need to be willing to part with potentially a lot of money for a monitor in an historic period when iPads are bachelor for as little as $329 and tablets using either Android or Windows are easily institute in the same full general price range—and Lenovo sells a non-touch version of this aforementioned monitor for $249. To be fair, the M14t is for sale at Newegg and other outlets for closer to $400, which is ameliorate but even so steep for what you become. Fifty-fifty if you lot don't want a tablet, i starts to look compelling in comparing.

You have to really demand or want the unique capabilities of the Lenovo ThinkVision M14t portable monitor for it to make sense. But if you lot do, information technology's smartly designed, well appointed in terms of features, and efficient extra space that you don't demand a lot of space or additional equipment to brand utilise of, and we recommend it on those terms. On many others, though, it'southward harder sell.

Matthew Murray is the head of testing for Future, coordinating and conducting production testing at Tom's Guide and other Future publications. He has previously covered engineering science and functioning arts for multiple publications, edited numerous books, and worked as a theatre critic for more than xvi years.